


stole my napkins and my heart

by cherrylyx



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Coffeeshop AU, F/F, Fluff, viseul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 07:08:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18463989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrylyx/pseuds/cherrylyx
Summary: Haseul wonders what exactly it is about the napkins at the cafe she works at that makes them worth stealing, and wonders what exactly to call the little leap her heart does when she sees the napkin thief.





	stole my napkins and my heart

Every morning at 8am, the door to the cafe in which Haseul works swings open with a tinkle of the entry bell, and a pink-haired girl steps in, looking like your typical college student with morning classes—sleep-deprived and dead inside. Every morning, this girl does what many other students her age do in the morning when they are running low on energy, and orders a coffee. What makes her different from everyone else, though, is the fact that she just orders a single black coffee—nothing more, not even a pastry or a sandwich to go with it.

And also the fact that she steals napkins.  
  
Without fail, at whatever table she's seated at that day, be it outside the cafe, by the window, tucked into a little nook or right in front of the counter where Haseul can see her blatant thievery, the paper napkins disappear without a trace. One moment they're tucked there neatly in the napkin holder, then the moment Haseul takes her eyes off the girl's table the napkins are just...gone. And so is the girl. It's amazing how fast this girl can move. Once Haseul was distracted by her coworkers Heejin and Hyunjin and when she looked back at the table after a mere few seconds, all she saw was a glimpse of pink hair and then the door swinging shut. How this girl has managed to get away with this with only Haseul having noticed her for so long is beyond her.  
  
Haseul wonders what on earth this girl does with all these napkins.

—

Another busy day, another morning visit from the napkin thief, another table robbed of its napkins. Haseul has gotten used to this routine by now.  
  
She's been developing her latest pet theory, which is that napkin girl is trying to build a fort solely made out of paper napkins. Why is she sleep-deprived? She's been staying up all night working on her fort. Why does she only order one coffee? It mainly functions as an excuse for her to sit at a table and gain access to more materials, and also obviously helps with her sleep-deprivation. Why is she so fast? She's always rushing to her fort in the dead of the night and that culminates in an overall improved running speed.  
  
Haseul checks her watch. She couldn't make it for one of her morning shifts a couple of days ago and got Yerim to cover, and now she's covering one of Yerim's night shifts, so this is her second shift at the cafe in a day. She knows for sure that napkin girl came in and stole some napkins that morning, but is she going to show up at night and steal more napkins? It's possible, since there are still 2 hours before the cafe closes, before Haseul has to pack up for the night. Perhaps she will see napkin girl for the second time that day.  
  
The familiar chime of the entry bell rings out in the silence of the nearly-empty cafe, and Haseul looks up. It's napkin girl, whose slightly creased brow suggests faint annoyance. She makes her way towards one of the more hidden tables, depositing her bags on the seat before striding up to the counter.  
  
"Hi! Good evening, how can I help you?" Haseul smiles her customer-service smile at the girl. The napkin thief really is quite pretty, and she could probably be a model except that she would probably steal the modelling company's napkins too.  
  
"One cream puff, please," the girl says, looking Haseul in the eye. Her eyes betray a flicker of surprise, almost as if she wasn’t expecting Haseul to be there again that day.

Haseul wonders if she knows that Haseul knows. Her secret, that is.

  
"Certainly, one cream puff coming right up! Anything else?" Haseul keys in the girl's order.  
  
The girl hesitates. “...And an—” She glances up at the menu. “And an iced latte please.”

“Cream puff and an iced latte, your total is $9.50! Please wait at the counter over there for your order to be ready. Enjoy your meal!” The girl fishes out a $10 note from her purse, and Haseul hands over her change, draping herself over the counter lazily. It’s been a quiet night, and Haseul expects napkin girl stealing more napkins to be the most exciting thing to happen for the rest of her shift.

The barista Chaewon’s soon done with the latte, almost at the same time as Hyejoo, who slides the plate with the cream puff over, a move which always nearly gives Haseul a heart attack. They catch the other’s eye and perform an elaborate handshake, consisting of a hi-five, legitimate handshake, fist bump and ending in a dab. Haseul sighs. It’s always a dab.

Napkin girl blinks, possibly slightly stunned at the overt display of bro-ship, and reaches for her drink and snack. At the same time, the sling of her purse slips down her arm, which she reaches for on instinct, tugging it upwards and back onto her shoulder. Ordinarily, this would not be a problem, except that the hand that she used to grasp the sling is the same hand that was holding her drink a few moments ago, and the glass falls to the ground, shattering upon impact.

She's standing in the middle of the mess, the puddle of spilled latte growing rapidly. Most of it has spilled onto her sweater and skirt, staining the soft fabric brown, even soaking through in some spots. At her feet, the remnants of the glass roll desolately on the ground, with shards of varying size scattered around her. The cream puff remains untouched on its plate upon the counter, but at what cost?

Dimly, Haseul registers that that's another glass the cafe is going to have to replace, but right now she's kind of just frozen in place along with Chaewon and Hyejoo. All three of them are staring at napkin girl, whose purse slips fully off her shoulder onto the ground with a muffled, anticlimactic thump, and napkin girl is just staring back as the purse falls open slightly. Haseul thinks she can see the corners of paper napkins poking through, and cannot help but note the dramatic irony of the situation.

Miraculously, Chaewon is the first to recover and to react to the situation. “Napkins, we need napkins.” She does a cursory sweep of the cafe, which is nearly empty save the three staff members and napkin girl. “Oh my god, we're all out of napkins. I'll have to get more.” She weaves around Hyejoo and Haseul to access the store room, where the cafe's stocks of utensils and napkins are kept.

Hyejoo is jerked back into reality at Chaewon's words, and frowns at the broken glass on the ground. “We need a broom too. Stay here, don't touch the glass, I'll be right back.” She disappears behind the curtain, the black fabric fluttering behind her.

Haseul continues to stare for a good five more seconds, before finally snapping out of it and realising belatedly that she is now the only staff member out here with napkin girl and that she will have to keep her company until the others return. She steps out from behind the counter and approaches napkin girl, who, incidentally, looks more flustered than Haseul has ever seen her. Bear in mind that this is a girl who shamelessly steals napkins from her local cafe on an almost-daily basis.

It appears that all of Haseul's conversational skills have momentarily failed her, something that undoubtedly always happens when she talks to pretty girls. “Um, hi? Yes. Hello. You, uh, normally come here in the morning, don't you?”

“Not really. I come here every morning _and_ most nights too.”

“Oh. That's nice.” Haseul fiddles with her pen. She really doesn't know what else to say to that.

A few more moments of silence pass. Haseul really wants to impress this girl and hopefully sweep her off her feet and also take the opportunity to ask her what she does with all these napkins, but it seems like Chaewon and Hyejoo could return any moment now and ruin Haseul's chances of ever having a proper conversation with the pretty napkin thieving girl, ever. So she goes for it.

“Say, what do you do with all those napkins? You carry some around, too. And it’s not like you’re using them to clean up spills, so...”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The girl pinches her lips together and avoids Haseul’s gaze.

“Oh, come on. Look at your _purse_ ,” says Haseul, bending down to reach for the fallen purse. Its owner makes a grab for it, but Haseul’s faster, and she snatches the purse out of the puddle, plopping it onto a nearby table. She closes her fingers on the corner of one of the napkins poking out of the purse, and pulls out not a paper napkin, but an _origami crane_ folded out of paper napkins.

Napkin girl makes a strange sound, almost like a wheeze, but not quite high-pitched enough. There is a faint pink flush on her cheeks as she watches Haseul continue to yank out more origami creations—a flower, a bird, a butterfly, a little deer, all folded by an expert hand.

Haseul, feeling rather like a magician performing a scarf pulling trick, reveals the last of the napkins, a tiny boat. She gestures at the works. “Did you—did you make these? These are...these are actually really good.”

“Thanks,” is the girl’s muffled reply. She’s taken to covering her face with both of her hands.

“Is this your...hobby or something?” Haseul gingerly picks up the deer, afraid she’ll rip the paper. Up close, it really is a work of art, antlers finely crafted, little legs delicate but somehow capable of supporting the deer’s body.

“It helps. With my homesickness.” She finally looks up, meeting Haseul’s eyes, and continues, words suddenly spilling out from her in a rush, almost with a sort of desperation. “I’m an exchange student from Hong Kong. I got a scholarship, and I was so, so excited to come here and start the term. For the first few months here, life was really exciting, and I had a good time but after a while I began to _really_ miss home. The food, the people, the night life...it’s really just not the same.” The girl takes a deep breath. “It tends to just hit you out of nowhere, and when it does, it _hurts_. I used to wish I could just hop onto a plane and fly back home, to my family and friends, where I could speak the language without fearing I’d fumble and make a fool of myself.”

She pauses, to catch her breath.

“So I made these, as a form of coping, since my mom used to make these with me when I was a kid. It reminds me of home. It took ages for me to get this good, and here I am, with these napkin origami creations sitting, cushioned, in my purse. ” The girl shifts her weight from one foot to the other, fiddling with the hem of her sweater. “Nowadays, it’s gotten better, but I’ve always wanted to get this off my chest, for months, even. There aren’t really any friends here I can say this to, and I just told you, basically a stranger to me, all of that in one go…” She shakes her head. “Anyway, I still make these to cope with stress. College, and all.”

“So that’s what you’ve been taking our napkins for? All this time, it’s been origami?” Haseul sets the paper deer down, and this time it’s her words that tumble out of her mouth. “Oh my god, I’ve always thought you were building a napkin fort or something. I’m so sorry, holy _shit_. But that’s a really good way of coping with that sort of thing. And it’s great that things have gotten better for you,” she finishes, scratching her neck sheepishly.

“I mean, in a way, I _have_ been building something out of these, so…” The girl laughs lightly, pink locks of hair framing her face as her lips curve upwards. Haseul had known that she was beautiful, but under the warm light of the cafe interior, the girl looks positively _breathtaking_ , and Haseul is momentarily lost for words as the girl brushes her hair asides, the illusion of perfection broken as the girl sneezes. She looks down at her practically-drenched sweater, and grimaces. “Oh man, it’s _cold_. Do you—”

“You can take my hoodie,” says Haseul, already yanking her hoodie off the hook at the wall by the counter. “I don’t get cold that easily, and you need it more anyway, so…”

Amusement shimmers in her eyes as the girl reaches for the hoodie, brushing Haseul’s outstretched hand as she does so. “I was going to ask if you felt cold too, but thanks.” She slips on the hoodie—it’s a little baggy on her, the way Haseul likes it, because then it feels and looks _comfy_.

With this hoodie, _her_ hoodie, the girl looks _cuddly_ too, and Haseul hopes she doesn’t realise she’s staring.

“What’s this?” The girl has discovered Haseul’s squishy ball, which is normally tucked in the left pocket of her hoodie, and she’s inspecting it curiously.

“Ooh, it’s a toy kids here like to play with. Let me show you.” A childish glee has welled up in Haseul’s heart, and she reaches for the mesh-covered ball. “Here, look. 3, 2, 1!” She squeezes, and the ball bulges outwards, the yellowish material poking through and nearly spilling out of the holes of the mesh.

The girl makes an utterly revolted face, leaning away from the ball almost at the same time as Chaewon announces, “Guys, stop flirting, y’all gross.” She steps out from behind the curtain, holding several stacks of paper napkins and wearing rubber gloves. So is Hyejoo, who’s clutching a broom, dustpan, and trash bag.

“We weren’t—” Haseul protests, and shuts up as soon as Hyejoo quirks her lips slightly at her, raising her eyebrows. If even _Hyejoo_ thinks so, she supposes it _may_ have seemed like...something it wasn’t.

“Alright, move, move aside, you guys.” Chaewon brandishes her rubber-gloved hands loftily, a far cry from the quiet girl she was when she first started working at the cafe. “We gotta clean this up.”

Hyejoo pokes Chaewon. “You take care of the puddle, I’ll do the glass.” She begins to sweep, lightly shooing napkin girl aside as she gathers the glass shards, occasionally stopping to empty them into the trash bag.

The two of them work together well, and before Haseul knows it, they’re done, Chaewon dumping the soaked napkins into the trash bag while Hyejoo ties it up, a look of satisfaction on her face. She chances a sideways peek at napkin girl, who has also been standing around, waiting for Hyejoo and Chaewon to be done for whatever reason, and hurriedly shifts her gaze back to a random spot over the counter.

“So, about your cream puff…” Hyejoo starts.

The girl shrugs. “Y’know what, it’s getting pretty late, so I think I’ll just…” She picks up the puff from its plate and bites into it as she crosses over to her table, picking up her bags from the seats. “Sorry for all the trouble, by the way. I promise I’m not normally that much of an idiot.”

“Nah, man. We deal with this more than you’d expect, so no worries,” Chaewon replies, dusting off her hands. “Just another normal day at this cafe.”

“Good to know I’m not the only fool in this area. Well then, I’ll be back tomorrow. Looking forward to the snacks here—especially _you_ , Haseul.” Napkin girl finishes her puff just as she makes her way towards the exit, walking especially close to Haseul, so close her hair’s tickling Haseul’s cheeks as she brushes past her, hands lingering suspiciously near Haseul’s own.

Like so many mysterious mornings, mornings on which she’d witnessed a pretty pink-haired soon-to-be former stranger steal the napkins right out of their holder, Haseul watches as a head of pink hair disappears past the threshold of the door, said door swinging shut behind her as the entry bell tinkles.

Hyejoo and Chaewon are both staring at her, and Haseul deliberately turns away, lifting a hand to cup her cheek. It’s warm, way too warm, and Haseul _knows_ that she’s blushing.

Something’s poking her cheeks, and she brings her hand down, opening her palm to reveal a paper napkin, folded in the shape of a small heart.

She can’t process this. Her brain isn’t working at all right now. What is happening? She doesn’t know. Haseul.exe has stopped working.

Fingers shaking, she turns the heart over. There’s a message written in fine marker ink on the other side, but right now Haseul is still trying to get it into her head that whatever just happened had indeed happened.

“She—she knows my name,” Haseul stammers. “Oh my god, she just—”

Chaewon rolls her eyes good-naturedly. “You wear a _nametag_ , Haseul. And about the rest, well, anyone with eyes can see that the two of you like each other.”

Hyejoo nods solemnly. “It’s kinda cute you know, what she did there with the napkin. You think when you guys start dating she’ll continue folding origami for you?”

“Not out of our _napkins_ ,” Haseul whispers, apparently having completely lost both her head and sight of her priorities. “We need to _pay_ for those. Oh my goodness, what am I even saying, what are you even saying, she likes me too? Napkin girl?” She needs help, someone send help. Confirmation that maybe napkin girl will become more than a regular but fleeting feature in Haseul’s life.

Wait, she has confirmation right here. Haseul looks down at the message on the paper heart again, this time actually trying to read it.

 _Not napkin girl, then. Her name’s Vivi,_ she tells herself as she reads the message, a grin unfurling at the corners of her lips, which widens as she sees the numbers scribbled at the bottom of the note.

“Vivi,” she repeats aloud, pressing the paper heart to her own wildly beating heart.

“Ah, love,” say Hyejoo and Chaewon simultaneously, before they conduct their bro handshake once again.

**Author's Note:**

> i wanted to include hyewon actually getting their stuff rlly fast and only taking so long to give viseul privacy but i couldnt rlly find a way to write it in  
> thank you for reading!


End file.
